Dream Tropes Wiki/Content Warnings
Sometimes, producers or distributors feel the need to warn the viewers of what they are about to see. This serves to help viewers who might not like what they're about to see stop looking at it before things get unpleasant; for others, it's an invitation to watch. Content warnings are often given in conjunction with a ratings system as an explanation of why a given work has the rating it does. In most cases, these are selected from a list of stock warnings (e.g. "strong language", "violence", "imitable behavior", or the very general "viewer discretion advised") — these don't really provide much of an explanation. A warning specific to the work shows that the work itself is fairly controversial or otherwise unusual. Like most other content rating systems, this only serves as an aid to the viewer's decision of whether or not to keep watching; what viewers actually decide is up to them. This hasn't stopped Moral Guardians from insisting on content warnings as a sort of deterrent from imitating harmful things, not realizing that most viewers tend to ignore such warnings or even consider them an indicator of the really good stuff. Works which try to capitalize on the latter phenomenon are often Rated M for Money. See also Media Classifications and Trigger, as well as Our Lawyers Advised This Trope, Don't Try This at Home, Do Not Attempt, This Is a Work of Fiction, and NSFW. Compare R-Rated Opening. Examples Other * For Nicktoons' AniWay block, some of the anime start with a content warning featuring footage from the anime aired that represents what the warning is about. ** For Latin America, the "Violence" warning has footage from the first episode of Pita-Ten where Misha gets a door slammed in her face, the "Blood" warning has footage from Saint Seiya, and the "Inappropriate Content" warning has the clip from Sailor Moon where Sailor Mercury falls down and Sailor Jupiter blushes at her as a result. * ETVKK has a set of these content warnings now: ** "The following program is rated PG and it is intended for an older youth audience. Viewer discretion is advised." (used on A Series of Unfortunate Events, Nowhere Boys, Silverwing, Himouto! Umaru-chan, Sailor Moon, Kulipari: An Army of Frogs, RWBY, The Animals of Farthing Wood, Samurai Pizza Cats, Ranma ½, Stranger Things, Pita-Ten, Degrassi: Next Class, Home and Away, Soy Luna, Pelswick, Redwall, Little Witch Academia, and certain episodes of Toad Patrol) ** "The following program is rated PG and it contains mature situations/themes and is intended for an older youth audience. Viewer discretion is advised." (Used for The Red Green Show, Karin, Modern Family, Malcolm in The Middle, Gintama, Azumanga Daioh, Corner Gas, Doctor Who, InuYasha, Riverdale, the Symphogear series, Street Hawk, Queer as Folk, and Magic Knight Rayearth; in general, the warning means the content is mature in both the sense of being potentially objectionable and that of likely being unrelatable to younger viewers.) ** "The following program is rated M and it contains contains coarse language and is intended for an older youth audience. Viewer discretion is advised." (A rather rare disclaimer, one of the few times it has been used was on the "Red Green Does New Years" episode of The Red Green Show) ** "The following program is rated M and it contains mature content, coarse language and is intended for an older youth audience. Viewer discretion is advised." (Used before Code Monkeys, Filthy Rich & Catflap, Father Ted, the Top Gear series, Ghost Stories, My Hero Academia, Osomatsu-san, The Grand Tour, Code Geass, Code Geass R2, Urusei Yatsura, and Svengoolie) ** "The following program is rated M and it contains scenes of violence and is intended for an older youth audience. Viewer discretion is advised." (Used before Sword Art Online: Alicization) ** "The following program is rated M and it contains scenes of violence, coarse language and is intended for an older youth audience. Viewer discretion is advised." (Used before Soul Eater, Death Note, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, and Corner Gas Animated) Film * Whenever C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America is aired by El TV Kadsre 4, they put up a disclaimer saying "This program contains material that is representative of the views and attitudes of an alternate history timeline. Viewer discretion is recommended but not advised." * El TV Kadsre uses a disclaimer saying "The opinions expressed in the following program, name of show here, do not reflect the values and views of El TV Kadsre, and of whom is not responsible for it's content" which is played before everything it considers "controversial" - ranging from science documentaries with alleged atheist viewpoints to the Last Week Tonight with John Oliver episode where John claimed the WWE mistreats wrestlers and called for fans to chant for health insurance for wrestlers. El TV Kadsre 3 uses variants that say "El TV Kadsre would like you to know we weren't involved in the production of the next program, name of show here. We haven't even seen it." and "Due to circumstances beyond our control, El TV Kadsre 3 is forced to show this next program, name of show here, which is not ours. If you're not interested or are of a different political stance than the producers of the program, too bad." Live-Action TV * When Oyfish hit the El Kadsreian airwaves in 1989, it was preceded with a long warning saying "...this program contains sexual intercorse (sic), violence, and VERY strong language...adults are the main target audience, thus kids should NOT watch this...viewer discretion is HEAVILY advised." * On the El Kadsre produced tapes of Schweetzman, there is a content warning similar to the El TV Kadsre 3 content warning disclaimer. Video Games * On the Japanese blurbs of many danmaku games by Drillimation, usually a disclaimer reading "This game contains scenes of danmaku" is placed on the back of the box. Category:Tropes Category:Dream Fiction Wiki